Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Prison drug smuggler made to repay just £1
PROSECUTORS have seized just £1 from a prisoner who made more than £39,000 running a drugs smuggling operation from three jails, including Perth Prison.
Craig Sutton, 38, made tens of thousands of pounds while running an illicit criminal enterprise from HMP Perth, HMP Edinburgh and HMP Addiewell.
The High Court in Glasgow heard how Sutton oversaw a scam between February 2015 to July 2017 in which dealers on the outside supplied heroin and ecstasy to customers.
At a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh, Crown lawyers and Sutton’s defence team agreed he pocketed £39,625 from the scam.
Judge Lord Tyre heard investigators concluded none of that sum is presently available for the Crown to claim back.
Lord Tyre was told both sides have agreed Sutton, of Renfrew, should hand over £1 under proceeds of crime legislation.
The judge then ordered the sum to be paid.
Prosecutors can return to court to seize more cash if investigators manage to discover if Sutton has any other assets which he obtained from wrongdoing.
Sutton pled guilty to drug dealing charges before Lord Burns at a hearing at the High Court in Glasgow in September 2020.
The judge heard how Sutton was caught after mentioning his criminal activities in letters and speaking about it openly on prison phones.
The court heard the offences came to light on July 19 2017 at HMP Addiewell when a fire alarm went off in a neighbouring cell to Sutton’s.
Prosecutor Mark McGuire said: “For safety’s sake prison officers began checking the surrounding cells, including Mr Sutton’s, which had been locked from the inside.
“On unlocking the door they observed a number of people in the cell, including the accused.
“A smell of burning was noticed and they were ordered out and the cell searched and a small quantity of heroin was found and drug-related paraphernalia and a suspected tick-list.”
Sutton’s cell was sealed and searched by police on September 8 2017 and this revealed dozens of letters addressed to Sutton from other prisoners.
There was also an unsent letter by Sutton in which he set out his plan to smuggle drugs into prison.
Mr McGuire said: “This would be by arranging for third parties on the outside to conceal multiple quantities of drugs internally; commit high-value shoplifting and claim to be of no fixed abode so that they would be remanded in custody.”
Police also seized recordings of all phone calls made or received by Sutton since he was jailed in 2014.
Co-accused Natalie Williamson, 30, also from Renfrew, admitted allowing her bank account to be used to deposit £30,000 of criminal money.
Sutton was jailed for five years and three months for the offences.